A snowboarder launches off a jump at Left Hand Brewing’s Hops and Handrails beer festival in 2015. (Photo provided by Left Hand Brewing)

Left Hand Brewing is hosting a beer festival Saturday that combines the best of Colorado: craft beer, snow and bluegrass.

It’s called Hops and Handrails. The Longmont event will feature 150 beers from 60 breweries. A snowboard rail jam competition. And this year, Left Hand is upping the ante with music headliner and mandolin extraordinaire Sam Bush. The ticketed event is a benefit for a handful of charities.

Event Manager Josh Goldberg puts it succinctly: “Craft beer and snowboarding is a match made in Colorado heaven! It’s a stellar event and brings together two outstanding Colorado industries.”

The 2016 Hops and Handrails opens its doors at 11 a.m. and the event starts at noon. (Ticket details.) Here’s a breakdown:

GABF is bigger in 2015 — making the map key for finding the best beers. (Photo by John Frank, Denver Post)

The bigger and berrier Great American Beer Festival debuted Thursday and left no doubt about one thing — it’s huge. It’s seven football fields big — which is to say unless you are a professional (beer) athlete, you may not ever see certain parts of the festival.

So First Drafts sent our scribes as scouts into the GABF 2015 clamor to share their impressions. Here’s a look at what’s ahead in the next three sessions.

–Where to go first: The most-coveted breweries had lines formed before the doors even opened — thanks to brewery reps, media and VIPs who get in the hall early. Among them: Three Floyds, Dogfish Head, Russian River, Wicked Weed, Ballast Point, Firestone Walker, Rare Barrel, Allagash and Cigar City. But don’t get discouraged and look for a lull before a permanent line forms for the rest of the festival.

–Yes, there’s a “weed” beer: One of the longest lines of the night is at Dad’s and Dudes Breweria in the Mountain section. This Denver-area brewery is advertising “the world’s first cannabis beer.” The crowd is so huge the brewery is rationing the beer, releasing a pitcher or so every 30 minutes. So time this one right.

Sam Calagione and one of his babies (photo by Joe Lamberti, provided by Dogfish Head) .

The story behind why 10 taps of Dogfish Head beer flow at a new “collective eatery” in Denver’s LoHi neighborhood begins with one of craft beer’s great evangelists and a high school pal turned beer geek.

Sam Calagione is a blur behind his brewery’s booth at the Great American Beer Festival, a tireless presence who answers all questions and refuses no selfie (as far as we know).

Helping out at the Dogfish Head booth over the years – Denver developer Rob Hahn, the high school friend. One year at the Vail Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines Festival, Hahn sketched out his vision for Avanti Food & Beverage on a cocktail napkin.

Calagione said he’d do whatever he could to support it, including making Dogfish Head part of it.

The depth and breadth of Colorado’s brewing scene was on display Saturday at the Great American Beer Festival awards, with medals going to the state’s largest and most legendary brewer, independent craft brewing trailblazers and, perhaps most notably, an impressive number of small breweries making their festival debuts.

In all, Colorado breweries brought home 39 medals (40 if you count the pro-am medal shared by Westminster’s Kokopelli Beer Co.), in the most wide-open GABF competition ever. Ten of them were gold.

The glut of new breweries in the U.S. and increased interest to compete at the prestigious festival prompted organizers to limit entrants to five beers in most cases, leading to unprecedented parity on the podium.

On Dec. 31, 2012, agents with the state Liquor and Tobacco Enforcement Division abruptly shut down production of Dank IPA, the sole packaged offering of little Dad and Dude’s Breweria.

The Aurora-based father-and-son brewpub had been brewing on Denver-based Prost Brewing’s German copper kettles, and state regulators called foul on the arrangement. The contract had been written improperly, resulting in unintended problems in how taxes were supposed to be paid, among other things, said Dad and Dude’s co-founder Mason Hembree.

The setback could have crushed a small business. But instead, one of the state’s most modest brewing operations has rebounded to reach a new production agreement with another craft brewery, raise $1 million through donations from patrons and release two new canned beers as it seeks to bolster the profile of suburban Denver breweries.

The 19-ounce stout glass retails for $9 (provided by Left Hand Brewing)

Odds are, most bars that serve Left Hand Brewing’s Milk Stout pour it into a shaker pint glass. You know the type. Thick, heavy, inexpensive. The pedestrian glass can suck some of the life out of great beer.

So the Longmont brewery joined with Oregon-based Rogue Brewing and sunk a goodly amount of time and money into researching and developing a specially designed stout glass produced by German glass-maker Spiegelau.

The three parties introduced the new glass at the Craft Brewers Conference in Denver earlier this month, demonstrating the unmistakable contrast when stouts from the two breweries are poured in a shaker pint glass and the new glass. Previously known as “Prototype C,” the glass was chosen from a final lineup of eight test shapes.

Kokpelli Beer Company’s new digs in Westminster (provided by Kokopelli).

Our latest roundup of Colorado craft beer news …

What promises to be another big year for Colorado brewery openings begins with a couple of new brewpubs … on Thursday night, The Post Brewing Co. opened in a former VFW hall in Lafayette promising hot chicken and cold beer. The brewery posted an Instagram photo 15 minutes after opening of a full house. The initial beer menu posted online spotlights the guest taps from Avery, Grimm Brothers, Upslope, Dogfish Head and Firestone Walker alongside a Post collaboration with Lafayette brothers-in-arms Odd 13 Brewing. The head brewer is former Dogfish Head brewer Bryan Selders.

Avery Brewing is doing a little Christmas ale counter-programming with the release of a beer named for a demon.

The beer geek-favorite Boulder brewery unleashes the ninth annual batch of its Mephistopheles Stout today, its latest and last big beer release of the year. The 15.4 percent alcohol-by-volume imperial stout was first brewed in 2005 as the third installment in Avery’s Demons of Ale series.

The beer is distinguished by its Westmalle Belgian yeast strain – which the brewery says produces layers of esters and phenols that create much of the complexity – roasted and black malts, and trace amounts of Special B. That’s a specialty malt that adds a touch raisin-like sweetness.

Thanksgiving is a great time to break out a treasure from the cellar to get through peeling all those potatoes, sneak some saison into the brine and get creative pairing craft beer with traditional Turkey Day dishes.

We asked experts from local bottle shops and beer-centric restaurants – and a guy who is a chef and a brewer – for Thanksgiving craft beer pairing suggestions. They came up with a bounty of ideas sure to both tempt the craft beer connoisseur and win converts from the grape juice …

Our new iPad app serves as a guide to metro Denver’s bountiful breweries, beer bars and bottle shops, the holy trinity of craft beer enjoyment for followers and fans. Download the app for iPad .
Next time you head for a beer in Boulder, don’t forget your friend, Beers of Boulder and Boulder County, an iPad app from the Daily Camera. Download the app for iPad .

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In Colorado, our pint glasses overflow with excellent beer. New breweries, new batches, festivals every other week. How lucky are we? First Drafts is The Denver Post's beer blog aimed at helping you keep tabs on the state's ever-expanding craft beer culture. We offer a mash of news, event coverage, homegrown stories, tasting notes and tips to help you imbibe. Expert drinker or homebrewer? Let us know what you're loving about Colorado's beer scene. Not sure exactly what a firkin is? No worries, let us be your guide. Go ahead. Belly up and drink it in!